1 Kings 5; 1 Kings 6; 2 Chronicles 2; 2 Chronicles 3

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1 Kings 5

1 King Hiram of Tyre had always been a friend of David's, and when he heard that Solomon had succeeded his father David as king, he sent ambassadors to him.
2 Solomon sent back this message to Hiram:
3 "You know that because of the constant wars my father David had to fight against the enemy countries all around him, he could not build a temple for the worship of the Lord his God until the Lord had given him victory over all his enemies.
4 But now the Lord my God has given me peace on all my borders. I have no enemies, and there is no danger of attack.
5 The Lord promised my father David, "Your son, whom I will make king after you, will build a temple for me.' And I have now decided to build that temple for the worship of the Lord my God.
6 So send your men to Lebanon to cut down cedars for me. My men will work with them, and I will pay your men whatever you decide. As you well know, my men don't know how to cut down trees as well as yours do."
7 Hiram was extremely pleased when he received Solomon's message, and he said, "Praise the Lord today for giving David such a wise son to succeed him as king of that great nation!"
8 Then Hiram sent Solomon the following message: "I have received your message, and I am ready to do what you ask. I will provide the cedars and the pine trees.
9 My men will bring the logs down from Lebanon to the sea and will tie them together in rafts to float them down the coast to the place you choose. There my men will untie them, and your men will take charge of them. On your part, I would like you to supply the food for my men."
10 So Hiram supplied Solomon with all the cedar and pine logs that he wanted,
11 and Solomon provided Hiram with 100,000 bushels of wheat and 110,000 gallons of pure olive oil every year to feed his men.
12 The Lord kept his promise and gave Solomon wisdom. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they made a treaty with each other.
13 King Solomon drafted 30,000 men as forced labor from all over Israel,
14 and put Adoniram in charge of them. He divided them into three groups of 10,000 men, and each group spent one month in Lebanon and two months back home.
15 Solomon also had 80,000 stone cutters in the hill country, with 70,000 men to carry the stones,
16 and he placed 3,300 foremen in charge of them to supervise their work.
17 At King Solomon's command they cut fine large stones for the foundation of the Temple.
18 Solomon's and Hiram's workers and men from the city of Byblos prepared the stones and the timber to build the Temple.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

1 Kings 6

1 Four hundred and eighty years after the people of Israel left Egypt, during the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the second month, the month of Ziv, Solomon began work on the Temple.
2 Inside it was 90 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 45 feet high.
3 The entrance room was 15 feet deep and 30 feet wide, as wide as the sanctuary itself.
4 The walls of the Temple had openings in them, narrower on the outside than on the inside.
5 Against the outside walls, on the sides and the back of the Temple, a three-storied annex was built, each story 7 1/2 feet high.
6 Each room in the lowest story was 7 1/2 feet wide, in the middle story 9 feet wide, and in the top story 10 1/2 feet wide. The Temple wall on each floor was thinner than on the floor below, so that the rooms could rest on the wall without having their beams built into it.
7 The stones with which the Temple was built had been prepared at the quarry, so that there was no noise made by hammers, axes, or any other iron tools as the Temple was being built.
8 The entrance to the lowest story of the annex was on the south side of the Temple, with stairs leading up to the second and third stories.
9 So King Solomon finished building the Temple. He put in a ceiling made of beams and boards of cedar.
10 The three-storied annex, each story 7 1/2 feet high, was built against the outside walls of the Temple, and was joined to them by cedar beams.
11 The Lord said to Solomon,
12 "If you obey all my laws and commands, I will do for you what I promised your father David.
13 I will live among my people Israel in this Temple that you are building, and I will never abandon them."
14 So Solomon finished building the Temple.
15 The inside walls were covered with cedar panels from the floor to the ceiling, and the floor was made of pine.
16 An inner room, called the Most Holy Place, was built in the rear of the Temple. It was 30 feet long and was partitioned off by cedar boards reaching from the floor to the ceiling.
17 The room in front of the Most Holy Place was 60 feet long.
18 The cedar panels were decorated with carvings of gourds and flowers; the whole interior was covered with cedar, so that the stones of the walls could not be seen.
19 In the rear of the Temple an inner room was built, where the Lord's Covenant Box was to be placed.
20 This inner room was 30 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 30 feet high, all covered with pure gold. The altar was covered with cedar panels.
21 The inside of the Temple was covered with gold, and gold chains were placed across the entrance of the inner room, which was also covered with gold.
22 The whole interior of the Temple was covered with gold, as well as the altar in the Most Holy Place.
23 Two winged creatures were made of olive wood and placed in the Most Holy Place, each one 15 feet tall.
24 Both were of the same size and shape. Each had two wings, each wing 7 1/2 feet long, so that the distance from one wing tip to the other was 15 feet.
27 They were placed side by side in the Most Holy Place, so that two of their outstretched wings touched each other in the middle of the room, and the other two wings touched the walls.
28 The two winged creatures were covered with gold.
29 The walls of the main room and of the inner room were all decorated with carved figures of winged creatures, palm trees, and flowers.
30 Even the floor was covered with gold.
31 A double door made of olive wood was set in place at the entrance of the Most Holy Place; the top of the doorway was a pointed arch.
32 The doors were decorated with carved figures of winged creatures, palm trees, and flowers. The doors, the winged creatures, and the palm trees were covered with gold.
33 For the entrance to the main room a rectangular doorframe of olive wood was made.
34 There were two folding doors made of pine
35 and decorated with carved figures of winged creatures, palm trees, and flowers, which were evenly covered with gold.
36 An inner court was built in front of the Temple, enclosed with walls which had one layer of cedar beams for every three layers of stone.
37 The foundation of the Temple was laid in the second month, the month of Ziv, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign.
38 In the eighth month, the month of Bul, in the eleventh year of Solomon's reign, the Temple was completely finished exactly as it had been planned. It had taken Solomon seven years to build it.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

2 Chronicles 2

1 King Solomon decided to build a temple where the Lord would be worshiped, and also to build a palace for himself.
2 He put 70,000 men to work transporting materials, and 80,000 to work cutting stone in the hill country. There were 3,600 others responsible for supervising the work.
3 Solomon sent a message to King Hiram of Tyre: "Do business with me as you did with my father, King David, when you sold him cedar logs for building his palace.
4 I am building a temple to honor the Lord my God. It will be a holy place where my people and I will worship him by burning incense of fragrant spices, where we will present offerings of sacred bread to him continuously, and where we will offer burnt offerings every morning and evening, as well as on Sabbaths, New Moon Festivals, and other holy days honoring the Lord our God. He has commanded Israel to do this forever.
5 I intend to build a great temple, because our God is greater than any other god.
6 Yet no one can really build a temple for God, because even all the vastness of heaven cannot contain him. How then can I build a temple that would be anything more than a place to burn incense to God?
7 Now send me a man with skill in engraving, in working gold, silver, bronze, and iron, and in making blue, purple, and red cloth. He will work with the craftsmen of Judah and Jerusalem whom my father David selected.
8 I know how skillful your lumbermen are, so send me cedar, cypress, and juniper logs from Lebanon. I am ready to send my men to assist yours
9 in preparing large quantities of timber, because this temple I intend to build will be large and magnificent.
10 As provisions for your lumbermen, I will send you 100,000 bushels of wheat, 100,000 bushels of barley, 110,000 gallons of wine, and 110,000 gallons of olive oil."
11 King Hiram sent Solomon a letter in reply. He wrote, "Because the Lord loves his people, he has made you their king.
12 Praise the Lord God of Israel, Creator of heaven and earth! He has given King David a wise son, full of understanding and skill, who now plans to build a temple for the Lord and a palace for himself.
13 I am sending you a wise and skillful master metalworker named Huram.
14 His mother was a member of the tribe of Dan and his father was a native of Tyre. He knows how to make things out of gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood. He can work with blue, purple, and red cloth, and with linen. He can do all sorts of engraving and can follow any design suggested to him. Let him work with your skilled workers and with those who worked for your father, King David.
15 So now send us the wheat, barley, wine, and olive oil that you promised.
16 In the mountains of Lebanon we will cut down all the cedars you need, tie them together in rafts, and float them by sea as far as Joppa. From there you can take them to Jerusalem."
17 King Solomon took a census of all the foreigners living in the land of Israel, similar to the census his father David had taken. There were 153,600 resident foreigners.
18 He assigned 70,000 of them to transport materials and 80,000 to cut stones in the mountains, and appointed 3,600 supervisors to make sure the work was done.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

2 Chronicles 3

1 King David, Solomon's father, had already prepared a place for the Temple. It was in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared to David, at the place which Araunah the Jebusite had used as a threshing place. King Solomon began the construction
2 in the second month of the fourth year that he was king.
3 The Temple which King Solomon built was 90 feet long and 30 feet wide.
4 The entrance room was the full width of the Temple, 30 feet, and was 180 feet high. The inside of the room was overlaid with pure gold.
5 The main room was paneled with cedar and overlaid with fine gold, in which were worked designs of palm trees and chain patterns.
6 The king decorated the Temple with beautiful precious stones and with gold imported from the land of Parvaim.
7 He used the gold to overlay the Temple walls, the rafters, the entryways, and the doors. On the walls the workers carved designs of winged creatures.
8 The inner room, called the Most Holy Place, was 30 feet long and 30 feet wide, which was the full width of the Temple. Twenty-five tons of gold were used to cover the walls of the Most Holy Place;
9 twenty ounces of gold were used for making nails, and the walls of the upper rooms were also covered with gold.
10 The king also had his workers make two winged creatures out of metal, cover them with gold, and place them in the Most Holy Place,
11 where they stood side by side facing the entrance. Each had two wings, each wing 7 1/2 feet long, which were spread out so that they touched each other in the center of the room and reached to the wall on either side of the room, stretching across the full width of 30 feet.
14 A curtain for the Most Holy Place was made of linen and of other material, which was dyed blue, purple, and red, with designs of the winged creatures worked into it.
15 The king had two columns made, each one 52 feet tall, and placed them in front of the Temple. Each one had a capital 7 1/2 feet tall.
16 The tops of the columns were decorated with a design of interwoven chains and one hundred bronze pomegranates.
17 The columns were set at the sides of the Temple entrance: the one on the south side was named Jachin and the one on the north side was named Boaz.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.